8 SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 



BEGINNING OF A REFORM IN THE SYSTEM AND 

 STUDY OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 



To check the torrent of popular delusion and 

 belief in imponderable agents of Nature, and of 

 self-directive powers in lifeless matter, the philos- 

 opher Bacon took a bold stand, by publishing a 



and Rome. The alchemists long labored to render copper, tin, and zinc 

 so freely movable by melting in crucibles as to bring forth hybrid species, 

 including the precious metals, gold and silver. 



A Treatise on Alchemy, published in 1591, and "dedicated to the 

 Queen of England by permission," allures the reader to learn "The 

 perfectest way concerning the right means of making the philosopher's 

 stone, aurum potabile, and other useful arts," all written in poetical 

 stanzas, describing " the twelve gates of entrance to be passed through 

 to arrive at these mysteries." Such a work, published under royal pat- 

 ronage, shows the rude and superstitious state of physical science less 

 than three hundred years ago. 



The liquid distilled from the dripping beaks of alembics containing 

 wine was supposed to be " the Elixir of life," and was called by French 

 alchemists Eau de vie; but posterity have realized that it has proved to 

 myriads the water of death. 



When the French experimenters set afloat two magnets on pieces of 

 cork in a basin of water, and saw them sail toward each other and join 

 together, they gave to them the name of " aim ants" lovers as de- 

 scriptive of their mutual affection. 



In like manner the alchemists, or chemists, in modern phraseology, 

 unable to comprehend the phenomena of heat, light, and electricity, 

 ascribed them to " three imponderable agents of Nature ; " to each of 

 which they gave the same name as to the several effects produced by 

 them ; thus confusedly blending ideas of the causes and of the effects of 

 the action denoted heat, light, and electricity. This erroneous system 

 is still continued. When a child asks the cause of the beautiful pen- 

 cillings of glittering frost on the window-panes in a wintry morning, 

 representing fern-leaves and fanciful figures, the answer to this early 

 philosophical inquiry commonly ascribes the work to "Jack Frost; " who 

 is ever afterward remembered as one of the mysterious wonder-working 

 " Agents of Nature." 



A belief in the existence of supernatural agents, also, is early im- 

 pressed on youthful minds by fairy tales, and by ascribing mysterious 

 powers to amulets and rings. In the witch scene, in " Macbeth," Shakes- 



